Thom Blum is one of the world's experts in sound and electronic music. He has created another piece of remarkable sound. He writes; this is another in my series of "audio postcards" (or abstract travelogues), which also includes portraits of Japan, Morocco, New York City, and Dalyan, Turkey.

Pátzcuaro is a relatively small town (population 45,000) nestled in the volcanic hillsides of the State of Michoacan, Mexico. The cultural center of this town is found in its 16th Century churches, outdoor markets, and Lake Pátzcuaro. The piece is assembled from raw and processed field recordings that I made while visiting Pátzcuaroin 1995.

We open on a small church social; the church having a rather boisterous cricket within its congregation. The middle section utilizes heavily processed versions of some of the original field recordings and is intended to paint some impressions of my 24 hour stay in this lovely town

The last half of the piece is drawn from recordings of a strolling mariachi group who, after several minutes of tuning up, rendered our request for Una Vez Nada Mas beautifully, as my wife and I sipped cervezas at a taco stand by the Lake.


MP3 File